


No Light, No Light

by gonnaflynow



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, Execution, M/M, eruri - Freeform, spoilers past chapter 49
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-10
Updated: 2014-07-10
Packaged: 2018-02-08 06:06:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1929531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gonnaflynow/pseuds/gonnaflynow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi isn't willing to see the light leave Erwin's eyes, and in that moment, he has a revelation. He hopes his risky move doesn't come too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Light, No Light

**Author's Note:**

> _you are never to let me overanalyze song lyrics again._
> 
>  
> 
> Title and story inspired by [No Light, No Light](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJBgqwr4WYw) by Florence + The Machine. I knocked this whole thing out, edits and all, in an hour and a half, and you should be scared by that.
> 
> What I suggest: listen to the song first, then read the lyrics, then read the fic. I think it will enhance your enjoyment/understanding, but that's just my opinion.
> 
> supa thank to [vitaminkae](http://vitaminkae.tumblr.com) for betaing on such short notice :D

The morning light broke bright and clear over the Walls and the gilded roofs of the capital. The only residents who were not out of bed were the ones who could not walk, the young, and the feeble. Everyone else had gathered in the central plaza. 

This was not an event to be missed. 

Near the back of the crowd, a short figure wrapped in a charcoal cloak fought valiantly against the swelling crowd, pushing against noblemen, gentlewomen, children and elders, it didn't matter. He cared little for visibility now. He had to get closer to that platform. 

"Get out, _move, get out of my way_." 

He thought about shoving the portly man in front of him into his party of servants beside him, but a shred of reason told him it would not be wise. Consider your goals, Levi. He will only be a hindrance. Find another way. 

As the clock drew closer to nine, the spectators began to increase in number, rapidly multiplying and all vying for a view. Levi swore he could sense the presence of bodies crawling out from the Underground, skirting the edges of the elite, their rags and the bags under their eyes giving them away all too easily. The atmosphere began to shift; pity, not contempt, was coming at him from all sides with the new addition to the crowd. With the air around him loosened, porous, Levi was able to gain another hundred meters in the span of a few minutes, the swathe of richly embroidered fabrics parting easily for his lithe body. He estimated the plaza would soon reach its capacity. Sticking his head above the crowd, he scanned the area, and ducked down just as quickly, fists clenching at the realization. 

One thousand. One thousand people had come to witness Erwin's death. Levi fought the sudden twist in his stomach and the bile in his throat and pushed forward. 

Then, a hush began to descend, starting from the center and spreading outward. The shock allowed Levi to slip past another ten people. The platform was nearly in reach now, a few dozen meters at most. 

Through the north end of the plaza, a procession of Military Police officers pushed forward in a tight formation, a solid block of khaki and precision against the colorful crowd. A few shouts began to echo around the arena, occasionally a cry of anguish or a string of slurs, but what shocked Levi the most were not the words, but the hands, dozens, all stretching towards the center of the Military mass, the very core of the event. 

The group reached the platform as Levi reached twenty meters out. The first man to mount the steps was Commander Nile Dawk, followed closely by an intimidating grey-haired man Levi had never seen but was likely safe in assuming hailed from the central branch of the police. Behind them were two guards, blank-faced and armed with rifles, and after them came Erwin, his remaining arm bound behind his back. His jailers had not been kind, that much was clear even at a distance: his usual impeccable appearance was dulled by the scruff of a week's time, hair matted and lank, and a deep cut, barely scabbed over, sat just below his right eye. Levi couldn't help the morbid fascination that gripped him as he squinted against the daylight to examine Erwin's remaining hand, and a breath of relief shook him when he counted five intact fingernails. 

Two more guards behind Erwin held his upper arm with a punishing grip, manhandling him into place in the center of the platform, then waiting with a scowl for him to shakily climb the three steps to the noose. Levi snuck past another three spectators, eyes sharply averted from the rope rigging. Erwin stood calmly, limbs loose from exhaustion and acceptance, blue eyes casting a wide berth over the crowd and drawing them in. 

No one was able to resist those damn eyes. 

The man tailing Nile had now stepped forward, hands locked behind his back in a triumphant at-ease.

" _Shit_ ," Levi cursed quietly, crouching to the ground and slipping between a succession of five larger men. Only a thin layer of the crowd separated them now. It wouldn't be long. 

"Before you stands Erwin Smith," the grey-haired man began, a snarl ripping through the end of the name, "a traitor to us all. This man, citizens of Sina, has conspired against you, planned to overthrow his Majesty the King, planned to sic his ragtag band of soldiers on you, your homes, your families. His nefarious schemes would have caused the end of life as we know it now, no, the end of all life residing in these three walls save for the very creatures his legion swore to fight." The man paused for the reaction of the crowd, an overwhelming roar that Levi had lost interest in picking apart. He slid past another four men and a small group of women, eyebrows barely raising as he ghosted by. 

"This man," he continued, "has wasted your money and time on a futile quest, then took those same resources and twisted them against you, used them to plan your downfall." He turned to Erwin just as Levi broke through another group, now five meters and three layers of people from the platform. "Do you have anything left to say for yourself, Commander?"

Erwin's back straightened, his head lifted high. "I do not regret my actions. I only regret that I took them after it was already too late." His eyes, previously focused on a spot in the distance, began to subtly scan the faces in front of him, looking, looking, moving from one face to the next with incredible speed. Levi grit his teeth and pushed forward. One line of people separated them now. 

"Is that all," the man said, voice low enough that Levi wouldn't have heard it if he hadn't been so close. "A man of few words and fewer convictions, to the end. Remarkable." 

He turned back to the crowd, tipping an invisible hat to them with a cruel smile. 

"Erwin Smith, Thirteenth and Final Commander of the Scouting Legion, I hereby sentence you to death. May the goddesses have pity on your tainted soul." He flicked two fingers to the guard on his right. "Ready the trap door."

Levi pushed through the front of the crowd, thousands of unsaid words on his lips and even more regrets running through his heart. The sudden clarity and revelation of his feelings shook him to the core, and he would have dropped to his knees if it wasn't for his soldier's countenance. He needed to do something, something, anything to make this right, but the words stuck fast in his throat. 

Without thinking, he threw an arm to the sky – his sky – the cloudless blue reflecting in his own shining eyes. 

"Erwin," he called, his own voice barely recognizable against the din. "Erwin."

Something in Erwin's eyes clicked, and his head snapped down to find Levi, fear crippling his small features. Erwin had never seen anything like it.

"Levi."

"On my signal."

The noose tightened around his neck. Erwin's eyes slid shut, the bright blue dimming as he graced Levi with a soft smile reserved for him, and him alone. 

The sudden gunshot echoed louder than the snap of the trapdoor. Erwin's eyes jerked open just in time to see Levi's extinguish, his body suspended in shock before it fell limply to the cobblestone. A tall, thin man emerged from the crowd, adjusting his hat as he holstered a smoking pistol. He approached the body with ravishing strides, inspecting the wound in the back of the head with a wolfish smile, and fixed his eyes on Erwin, his vision faded to an unseeing blue, flat and cold, as he hung in the cool spring air.

 

**Author's Note:**

> And I'd do anything to make you stay  
> No light, no light  
> No light  
> Tell me what you want me to say.


End file.
